EDITORIAL: 26 reasons to act: Victoria Soto

The school was "completely evacuated," and "Victoria had not come out."

Even after hearing those words on the morning of Dec. 14, according to the New York Daily News, Jillian Soto held out hope that her sister was OK.

It wasn't until she started receiving Facebook messages expressing condolences and calling Victoria a hero that it sank in.

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After five years of teaching at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Victoria Soto died while trying to shepherd her students into a closet. Her body shielded theirs as much as it could from a rapid stream of bullets coming from the semiautomatic Bushmaster AR-15 rifle that was used to kill 20 children and six adults that day.

"We don't want to take anyone's right to bear arms by any means, but we want to make this world safe," Jillian Soto told the Daily News. "Having someone walk into the school with an assault rifle, with tons of magazines on him, is something that should never happen."

No family should have to go through what the Sotos experienced that day and every day since. Connecticut and federal lawmakers must do everything in their power to prevent another Sandy Hook.